Jonathan Toews is off to a hot start for the Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks are not a very good hockey team in the year 2022. They are at the very beginning of a rebuild which the team expects to take a long time. It is going to be a very long year for this team as they work on building for the future.

Things didn’t get off to a hot start for Chicago in 2022-23 as they opened with two elite teams in the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights. As expected, they were beaten in both and only scored two goals in those six periods of play.

However, on Saturday night, they finally earned their first win of the season. They paid a visit to the San Jose Sharks who are also one of the weaker teams in the NHL. It was a great game for Chicago as Luke Richardson collected his first career win as an NHL head coach.

After going down 2-0, it was Jonathan Toews who started the rally by scoring a big goal. That was his second goal of the season (he has yet to collect any assists yet). In a contract year for Toews that might lead to him ending up on another team, he is off to a fast start.

The Chicago Blackhawks need Jonathan Toews to be the best version of himself.

Going into the year, a lot of people wondered how Toews would play this season. He hasn’t been the best version of himself in a couple of years which makes people assume that he is hard to trade if the Blackhawks wanted to. Well, this big start might be attractive for other teams.

Toews has clearly bought into Richardson’s systems and what they are trying to do. He isn’t the same player that he was in 2014 but he can still be very valuable to a team. For now, his most important role with the Blackhawks is being a leader both on and off the ice.

He is going to see a lot of this young organization up and down from Rockford this year and it is up to him to show them the way. He has been one of the best captains in the league for his entire career and now isn’t the time to stop.

If he does put up good offensive numbers, there could be another run at the Stanley Cup coming his way with a different team. The Hawks would be wise to consider making big moves like that to help improve their chances at a brighter future.

As long as he is with the Blackhawks, however, it is nice to see him playing well because it sets a tone. There was worry that he wasn’t all in on this team and the decisions that they were making but his play suggests otherwise. The rest of his 2022-23 season will certainly be interesting.